Culture and Business: overview of slides

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Culture and Business overview of slides

• definitions
• changing meaning of culture
• culture and markets
• your personal culture
• geography of culture
• multile / trans-national cultures
• cultural dynamics change and borrowing
• 5 elements (dimensions) of culture
• Hofstedes indices
• USA vs China - cultural comparison
• business customs and culture

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Culture. Consumers and Business Transactions
Cateora, chs. 4-5

• defining culture
• how important is culture to marketing ?
• in what context ?
• which is more important ?
• having an in-depth knowledge of a given culture
  or having a broad knowledge business behavior in
  a global context ?
• review of concepts presented in Cateora

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culture (kùl¹cher) noun The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language

• 1a. The totality of socially transmitted behavior
  patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions,..
• 1b. These patterns, traits, and products
  considered as the expression of a particular
  period, class, community, or population
  Edwardian culture Japanese culture the culture
  of poverty.
• 2. Intellectual and artistic activity, and the
  works produced by it.
• 3. Development of the intellect through training
  or education.
• (These are some of the definitions given in the
  dictionary)

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The Fateful Question of Cultureby Geoffrey
Hartman (NY Columbia Univ Press ISBN
0-231-08490-0)

• concept of culture too broad or too narrow
• different uses
• anthropology (hair style, family rites, .)
• aesthetics (types of music, paintings, etc)
• today s common usage
• police culture 
• corporate culture
• youth culture
• Reviewed by Terry Eagleton, TLS, 980710 6-7.

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Culturebelonging to society or to a group ?

• traditionally
• defined our roots, our society (emphasis on what
  is shared)
• we are taught the values and rules of our society
  by our elders
• arts distilled the values of our society

• today (since 1960s)
• culture means the opposite!
• the affirmation of a distinctive identity
• hence many groups
• from consensus to conflict (emphasis on
  differences)

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Culture no longer the answer but the problem

• three forms of radical politics having dominated
  world agenda since 1960s
• ethnic struggles
• revolutionary nationalism
• feminism

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What lies behind this change?

• the older model of culture had an idea of
  universal humanity which turned out with tedious
  frequency to exclude most of the population
• (consider Louis XIVs France, Victorian England,
  Jeffersons USA)

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Sub-cultures

• dominant culture seen as oppressive by many
  sub-cultures
• culture - rather than being a whole - is broken
  up into sub-cultures
• pluralism replaces concepts of a unified Volk
• Culture (capital C) becomes cultures

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Culture and International Businessculture vs
life style

• Two Dimensions
• behavior (country specific)
• understanding and respecting a different
  culture
• ability to communicate / negotiate
• segmentation (transborder sub-cultures)
• identifying world segments based on life style
• e.g., Levi Jeans, BMW, Nike, IBM

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Culture and Marketingimportance varies with
markets

• Impersonal marketing (pull)
• consumer goods
• symbols
• logos
• images and message
• (motivation)
• aesthetics

• Personalized marketing (push)
• industrial goods
• salesmen
• status - motivation
• negotiations
• business customs
• relationships and trust

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Culture describe and analyze your own (personal)
culture

• which dimensions (variables) to consider ?
• sources of you culture?
• does your culture influence you behavior ?
• do you consider your cultural ties to be strong
  or loose and changing ?
• how does your personal culture compare with that
  of your parents ?

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Determinants of your consumption

• what role do cultural variables play ?
• foods ?
• dress ?
• hobbies and leisure ?
• gift giving ?
• savings rate ?

• economic / demographic var. ?
• your income ?
• your debts / savings ?
• your expectations -future income ?
• your age ?
• family status ?

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Culture or reference group ?

• is your personal culture
• as it affects your consumption
• function of values inherited from your family or
• defined by your reference group ?

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 Culture deals with a groups design for
living  p. 85

•  culture of the people 
• vs
•  culture of the market 
• culture of the market - a misnomer ?

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Geographic delimitation of culture

• American culture ?
• New England
• New York City
• LA
• Bible belt
• the Deep South

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Multiple cultures - belong to more than one
culture ?

• French - European - youth market ?
• do corporations have a culture ?
• what is the culture of a MNC ?
• of a global corporation ?

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Marketing cross-cultural or trans-cultural
?Global brands and global segments

• global segments cut across border
• global corporations seek to satisfy global
  (universal) needs
• regional/local culture only a distraction ?

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Cultural dynamicsresistance to changecapacity
of markets for change

• global mkt believes in universal needs and
  desires with converging consumer tastes
• can this convergence be accelerated ?
• marketing f (culture)
• or
• culture f (marketing)

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Accept or resist change change is good ?

• cultural change
• Canada today vs 1960
• Japan ?
• nature of changes ?
• life style
• role of family (authority of father ?)
• household vs family
• same sex unions
• dress and food

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Cultural change marketing promotes cultural
borrowing

• jeans
• fast food
• cigarettes
• coffee
• pass times / entertainment
• TV, CDs, Internet cafes

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Elements of culture anthropology framework 5
dimensions of culture

• material culture
• social institutions
• man and the universe
• aesthetics
• language

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Geert Hofstede Culture s Consequences Int.
Differences in Work Related Values (1980)

• individualism/collective index
• USA vs Japan
• power distance index
• Canada vs Mexico
• uncertainty avoidance index
• France vs USA
• masculinity/femininity index
• Japan vs Finland

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Business Customs and Global MarketingCateora,
Ch. 5 (10th edition)

• personal relationships vs contracts
• patience vs efficiency
• polychronic vs monochronic
• high-context vs low-context
• centralized vs decentralized
• top management vs middle management
• imperatives - adiaphora - exclusives

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Adaptation a matter of degree

• cultural imperatives
• required behavior
• gifts / rules of civil behavior / table manners
• cultural adiaphora
• optional behavior - certain customs one may want
  to adopt (but perhaps not! dont be more catholic
  than the Pope)
• cultural exclusives
• behavior reserved for nationals

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Doing Business role of management

• sources and level of authority
• send the top executive or mid-level mangers?
• who is important the person or his title ?
• management objectives
• personal goals vs those of corporation

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Doing business communicating

• communication problems
• language and form
• what does no problem and maybe mean ?
• formality and tempo
• role of rank and protocol
• P-time vs M-time
• ex linear agenda vs free form negotiations
• negotiations
• form, duration, expected outcome

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Low context communicationthe message, not the
messenger is important

• E.T. Hall
• clear, explicit messages, suitable for written
  communication
• no or little hidden body language
• typical for Switzerland, Northern Europe, USA

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High context communication importance of
non-verbal messages

• context is important
• who is present ?
• what kind of reception room ?
• protocol - formality - dress
• the old world of diplomacy meanings often
  partly hidden and indirect
• ex Japan (no is not used)

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Conclusion

• in international marketing culture usually refers
  to trans-national / trans-cultural contexts
• culture is this sense is more akin to
  trans-national segments than to traditional
  concepts of national cultures